Colorado Madams

In 1858, prospectors discovered gold where Cherry Creek meets the South Platte River (today's downtown Denver), sparking a gold rush that drew more than 100,000 fortune seekers to the territory. Among them were enterprising women seeking their own motherlode-riches dug straight from the pockets of miners, merchants, railroad workers, and any other men with money to burn. These soiled doves and madams of early Colorado were more complex-and more intriguing-than conventional western lore migh...